Mini-mendel printed!

For some, the fact that the mini-mendel isn’t a finished product is a reason not to try it. For me, it’s the opposite. I’ve now printed all parts for the mini-mendel. I’ve also found suppliers for (I think) all of the non-printed parts that are needed. I’m waiting on delivery from RS Components (nut’s & bolts), Pololu (stepper motor drivers), Smalltec (smooth rods), Adtech (PTFE Bowden cable) and Active-robots (NEMA 14 stepper motors). If a miracle happens I will have all items within two weeks. In the meantime, as parts are coming in, I will see when I enough parts to finish one sub-assembly at a time. I’ll keep you updated with the trouble I run into

This is the table with lists of parts. Interestingly, it seems possible to stay within 350 euro target in terms of expenses, for future Mini-mendel’s, that is. I will probably be over this target because I won’t get everything right (I already ordered some of the wrong rods, there goes 40 euro’s):

Some answers to questions I got:
Q: Does it use the same timing belt as the regular Mendel?
A: Yes. Only shorter lengths. Hopefully, my BOM shows the right lenghts that you need to order.

Q: How much time did it take to print it?
A: About 15 hours in total, I estimate. I didn’t keep track of it. I just turn on a batch and work on other things. I printed it in about 8 sheets because my build platform is warped. I can only use a 20×10 space of it. So it’s still pretty labour intensive to print a batch.

Q: How much material is used to print it?
A: All the parts I printed (everything minus 3 pulleys minus a couple of grams) weigh just under 300 g. I’m using 30% infill.

6 Responses

This is great as I have been thinking of doing a Mini-Mendel. I’m in the process of getting parts together for a belt drive McWire repstrap and will try making a printhead like nophead’s for it and the mini. I will be watching for updates.

Looking forward to it! I got 5kg of plastic from Reprapsource, and once I’m done printing a ton of Mousetrap I’ll probably start printing parts piecemeal for my next printer. Whether it’s a mini or a full mendel is still to be decided.
Good luck!

I went to the USA to visit Zach and Bre and the others from Makerbot and to give a talk at MIT for an innovation lab. I proposed to give a demo, but didn’t dare bring one of my Darwin RepRaps on an airplane. They are very heavy and fragile, unlike the Min